YA Sci Fi Survey

last updated April 18, 2015

I'm compiling a list of every YA science fiction novel I can find, to gain a better understanding of this market (see what's been done, over-done, and where there might be room for new ideas). Your help is appreciated - please tell me any books I've missed or mislabeled. The list does include upper middle grade SF novels.

* Read: 41 books
#Plan to read: 35 books** Read and highly recommend

Omega City, Diana Peterfreund, 2015. Middle grade adventure in an abandoned cold war bunker, with science fiction elements.Soulprint by Megan Miranda. 2015. With the science of soul-fingerprinting a reality, Alina Chase has spent her entire life imprisoned for the crimes her past-self committed.Mindwalker by AJ Steiger. June 2015. Lain Fisher has already aced the Institute's elite training program for mindwalkers, therapists who use a direct neural link to erase a patient's traumatic memoriesThe Leveller by Julia Durango. June 2015. Nixy Bauer drags kids out of virtual reality and back to their parents in the real world.The Unquiet by Mikaela Everett. Sept. 2015. For most of her life, Lirael has been training to kill—and replace—a duplicate version of herself on a parallel Earth.Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. Oct. 2015. This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

Now That You're Here*, Amy K. Nichols, 2014. In a parallel universe, the classic bad boy falls for the class science geek.Zodiac, Romina Russel, 2014. Rhoma Grace is a 16-year-old student from House Cancer with an unusual way of reading the stars (blend of scifi and fantasy)The Body Electric#, Beth Revis, 2014. Ella has the ability to enter people’s dreams and memories using technology developed by her motherEarth & Sky#, Megan Crewe, 2014. Earth has been at the mercy of alien scientists using us as the unwitting subjects of their time-manipulating experiments; Win belongs to a rebel faction seeking to put a stop to it, and he needs Skylar’s helpFalls the Shadow, Stephanie Gaither, 2014. Two hours after her sister's funeral, Cate’s family picked up Violet’s replacement like nothing had happened.Alienated**, Melissa Landers, 2014: An alien exchange student. Dangerous*, Shannon Hale, 2014: Maisie wins a trip to Astronaut Boot Camp and is determined not to let her disability slow her downAvalon#, Mindee Arnett, 2014. Teenage mercenaries in space... possible YA version of Firefly. Dove Arising, Karen Bo, 2014: Phaet must join the moon militia to protect their colony from desperate Earth dwellers. Stitching Snow*, R.C. Lewis, 2014: A ship crash-lands near Essie's home on a planet always sub-zero cold. Salvage**, Alexandra Duncan, 2014: a teenage girl lives aboard a male-dominated deep space merchant ship. Elusion, Claudia Gabel, 2014: An app, visor and wristband will virtually transport you to an exotic destination where adventure can be pursued without the complications—or consequences—of real lifeExtraction#, Stephanie Diaz, 2014: Clementine is privileged to be extracted from the dangerous surface of a planet to its safe core, but discovers her leaders are planning to exterminate Surface dwellers—including Logan, the boy she lovesThe Taking, Kimberly Derting. 2014. A girl wakes up and discovers 5 years have passed, but she hasn't aged a day. Possible links to extraterrestrials. Burn Out, Kristi Helvig, 2014: Tora yearns to escape the wasteland her planet has become after the sun turns "red giant"Scan, Sarah Fine, 2014: When Tate steals his father's odd invention, he’s plunged into a secret inter-species conflict that’s been going on for centuries

These Broken Stars**, Amie Kaufman, 2013: Titanic in space, surviving on a strange planet, love storyPivot Point*, Kasie West, 2013. Borderline paranormal: girl with ability to see two possible futuresParallel*, Lauren Miller,. 2013. Parallel dimension collision causes a girl to discover her parallel's choicesAltered*, Jennifer Rush, 2013. Girl goes on the run to help four genetically altered young men escape manipulationZenn Scarlet*, Christian Schoon, 2013. Girl training to be an exo-vet: taking care of extra-terrestrial animalsThe Summer Prince*, Alaya Dawn Johnson, 2013: consequences of altering your bodyStarglass*, Phoebe North, 2013: a self-contained culture aboard a space ship for 500 yearsAll Our Yesterdays* (Cristin Terrell). 2013. Em's tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apartLinked* (Imogen Howson) 2013: Elissa's discovers her mind is linked to another girl and helps her escape from a dangerous secret government program to another planetControl, Lydia Kang, 2013. A future with human genetic "mistakes"Rush, Eve Silver, 2013. In the game, a team of teens are sent on missions to eliminate terrifying and beautiful alien creatures. There are no practice runs, no training, and no way out. The Rules, Stacey Kade, 2013. A girl escapes from a genetics lab; she has human and extaterrestrial DNAReplica (Jenna Black): 2013. when the new Nate wakes up in the replication tanks, he must discovered how he was murderedMilo 2.0, Debra Driza, 2013. a teenage girl discovers she is an experiment in artificial intelligenceThe Ward, Jordana Frankel, 2013: waterlogged Manhattan of the futureDualed, Elsie Chapman, 2013: everyone must eliminate their genetic Alternate twin, raised by another family, before their twentieth birthdayAfter Eden, Helen Douglas, 2013: Eden discovers the new boy at school is from the future, sent back in time to accomplish a taskReboot, Amy Tintera, 2013. Humans rebooted after death to serve as soldiersCoda, Emma Trevayne, 2013: By encoding music with addictive and mind-altering elements, the Corp holds control over all citizens. When We Wake, Karen Healey, 2013 - first girl ever cryogenically frozenPulse, Patrick Carmen, 2013: in 2051, some teens have the power to move objects with their mindsRevolution 19, Greg Rosenblum, 2013: Only a few escaped the robot revolution of 2071

For Darkness Shows the Stars* 2012 (Diana Peterfreund) - a science fiction retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion based in a post-apocalyptic world devastated by genetic manipulation gone wrong.The Lost Girl*, Sangu Mandanna, 2012: Eva is a clone created as backup in case her original diesWhat's Left of Me*, Kat Zhang, 2012: two girls share one bodyPartials#, Dan Wells, 2012: Engineered organic beings identical to humans have decimated the populationThe Darkest Mind#, Alexandra Braken, 2012: survivors of deadly disease killing childrenFalse Memory#, Dan Kronos, 2012: erased memory, genetically altered teenagersSo Close to You, Rachel Carter, 2012: portals, dangerous experimentationErasing Time#, C.J. Hill, 2012: twins sent to the futureEarth Girl, Janet Edwards, 2012: only the handicapped live on EarthThe Chosen Ones, Tiffany Truitt, 2012: the government, faced with humanity's extinction, created the artificial beings who are extraordinarily beautiful, unbelievably strong, and unabashedly deadlyArticle 5, Kristen Simmons, 2012: the Bill of Rights is gone and the military rules; you can get arrested for staying out after dark or for reading the wrong book. Ember's mother is arrested for violating Article 5 and her arresting officer is a boy Ember thought she lovedScored, Lauren McLaughlin, 2012: teenagers are monitored via camera and given a "score" that determines their future potentialInsignia 2012 (S.J. Kincaid) - Tom is offered place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy, hoping to become a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of - but at what cost?A Long Long Sleep* 2011 (Anna Sheehan) - Explores the moral ramifications of extended stasis and also blending of human and alien DNA.

Divergent*, Veronica Roth, 2011: everyone must choose to live in separate factions to supposedly cure the ills of society

Possession*, Elana Johnson, 2011: a teenager chooses to join a rebellion that has risen against government mind control and brainwashing

Shatter Me*, Tahereh Mafi, 2011: a girl with a dangerous power resists being used by her government as it faces environmental disasters

Legend **, Marie Lu, 2011: a girl from the elite ruling Republic tries to hunt down the young criminal suspected of killing her brother but instead discovers an unexpected ally with scary secrets about the Republic.Open Minds* 2011 (Susan Kaye Quinn) -Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others.

Ultraviolet#, R.J. Anderson, 2011: Ali watched her classmate disintegrate in front of her.... she's also seeing colors and tasting liesTankborn, Karen Sandler, 2011: Genetically Engineered Non-humans are gestated in a tank and sent to work as slaves as soon as they reach age fifteen.The Predicteds, Christine Seifert, 2011: The whole school is freaking out about PROFILE, an experimental program that can predict students' future behavior.Glow 2011 (Amy Kathleen Ryan) - What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?

Across the Universe* 2010 (Beth Revis) – a teenage girl trying to find a mysterious killer on a spaceship traveling to colonize a far distant planet.Matched*, Ally Condie, 2010: The Society makes marriages matches but Cassia has apparently been matched to two different boys – which is the right one?XVI * 2010 (Julia Karr) – at age 16 girls get a brand meaning they are now available for sexual activityShip Breaker* 2010 (Paolo Bacigalupi) – the seas have risen and many cities are underwater; there are half-men and pirates.

Some books fall in multiple categories, I tried to place them in the category that is most dominant according to the blurb. Inevitably I have made mistakes - if you've read a book please help me categorize it.

Rebellion against futuristic government control

The Hunger
Games* (Suzanne Collins) – teenagers put into an arena to fight to the death
for the entainment of the Capitol, the controlling government.

Little Brother * (Cory Doctorow) – the government gets so
extreme about catching terrorists, that they treat everyone as if they are
suspect – so teens rebel. (Also falls into the Cyberpunk genre)

Mazerunner (James Dashner) –
teenagers have to find their way through a maze without being caught and
“changed”

Scored (Lauren McLaughlin) - teenagers are monitored via
camera and given a "score" that determines their future potential

Divergent * 2011 (Veronica Roth) – everyone must choose to live in separate factions to
supposedly cure the ills of society

Possession * 2011 (Elana Johnson) – a teenager chooses to join a
rebellion that has risen against government mind control and brainwashing

Shatter Me * 2011 (Tahereh Mafi) – a girl with a dangerous power
resists being used by her government as it faces environmental disasters

Legend ** 2011 (Marie Lu) - a girl from the elite ruling Republic tries to hunt down the young criminal suspected of killing her brother but instead discovers an unexpected ally with scary secrets about the Republic.

Article 5 2011 (Kristen Simmons) - the Bill of Rights is gone and the military rules; you can get arrested for staying out after dark or for reading the wrong book. Ember's mother is arrested for violating Article 5 and her arresting officer is a boy Ember thought she loved

The Predicteds 2011 (Christine Seifert) - The whole school is freaking out about PROFILE, an experimental program that can predict students' future behavior. Not sure exactly where to categorize this one.

The Unidentified 2011 (Rae Mariz) - Kid knows her school’s
corporate sponsors not-so-secretly monitor her friendships and
activities for market research. It’s all a part of the Game; the
alternative education system designed to use the addictive kick from
video games to encourage academic learning.

The Clone Codes 2010 (The McKissacks) - Thirteen-year-old
Leanna's entire life is thrown into chaos when her mom is identified as
a radical supporter of cyborgs and clones who are treated no better
than slaves. (upper Middle Grade)

Tomorrow Girls (Eva Gray) - Louisa is sent to a futuristic boarding school that teaches survival skills. She doesn’t even miss not having a TV, or the
internet, or any contact with home. It’s for their own safety, after
all. (upper middle grade)

The Limit (Kristen Landon) - kids are being taken away to special workhouses if their families exceed the monthly debt limit imposed by the government.(upper middle grade)

The Giver # (Lois Lowry) - a world without war or fear or pain, but also a world
without choices. When Jonas turns 12, he is singled out to receive
special training from the Giver, who alone holds the memories of the
true pain and pleasures of life (upper middle grade)

Among the Hidden (Margaret Peterson Haddix) Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He's lived his entire life in hiding (upper middle grade)

The Third (Abel Keogh) - the main character appears to be adult, so this may not be YA. A world where everything must be recycled because of limited resources, and if you don't have a credit to have a third child, you'll be forced to have an abortion.

Winter's End (Jean-Claude Mourlevat) - four teens have left their
prison-like boarding schools behind, fleeing across icy mountains from a terrifying pack of dog-men
sent to hunt them down, they are determined to take up the fight against
the despotic government that murdered their parents years before.

The Line (Teri Hall) - set
in the near future, when an invisible, physical barrier exists between
the Unified States and Away, examining a girl's choice to risk crossing
not just the barrier, but the lines her protective mother has drawn for
her in order to keep her safe from a destructive, controlling government.

The Other Side of the Island (Allegra Goodman) Honor and her
parents have been reassigned to live on Island 365 in the Tranquil Sea.
Life is peaceful there, regulated by Earth
Mother, a corporation that controls New Weather, and it almost never
rains. Everyone fits into their rightful and predictable place, except Honor.

The Bar Code Tattoo (Suzanne Weyn) Individuality vs. Conformity. Identity vs. Access. Freedom vs. Control. The bar code tattoo. Everybody's getting it. It will make your life
easier, they say. It will hook you in. It will become your identity. But what if you say no?

Girl in the Arena(Lisse Haines) Lyn is a neo-gladiator's
daughter, through and through. Following the rules help the family survive, but rules can also turn
against you. When a gifted young fighter kills Lyn's seventh father, he
also captures Lyn's dowry bracelet, which means she must marry him

Tunnels (Roderick Gordin) 14-year-old Will Burrows
unearths
the unbelievable: a subterranean society that time forgot. "The Colony" is ruled by a merciless overclass, the
Styx. Will must free his father--is he also about to ignite a
revolution? (upper middle grade)

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm (Nancy Farmer) - Tendai needs an
explorer's badge to become an Eagle Scout, and he can get one by walking
across the city -- an act his father would never permit: he has never been out in the real world, unprotected and alone, before. Set in South Africa in 2194 (upper middle grade)

Insignia 2012 (S.J. Kincaid) - Tom is offered
place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy, hoping to become a
superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality
warrior dreams of - but at what cost?

The Glimpse (Claire Merle) In a near future, society is segregated according to whether people are genetically disposed to mental illness. 17-year-old Ana has been living the privileged life of a Pure due to an error in her DNA test. When the authorities find out, she faces banishment from her safe CommunityThe Complex (Cathy E Zaragoza) Helena Linx is dying. Isolated and quarantined for over a decade, sixteen-year-old Helena lives in a virtual utopia run by a medical council bent on saving the world from a fatal and almost incurable disease. The pandemic has been contained, but she and hundreds of others are still waiting to be curedOur bodies are not under our control

Cinder * (Marissa Meyer) - a science fiction twist on Cinderella, where the girl is a second-class citizen and cyborg with no memory of her life before her surgery. Includes a lunar colony that has diverged genetically from humans.

A Long Long Sleep * (Anna Sheehan) - Locked away in the chemically induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten subbasement, sixteen-year-old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew. After 62 years, she's wakened by a kiss, but this is not anything like the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale (as it implies). Explores the moral ramifications of extended stasis and also blending of human and alien DNA.

Uglies # (Scott Westerfield) - teenagers undergo an operation
that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and
catapults you into a high-tech paradise – but there is a cost

Beta (Rachel Cohn) Elysia is a clone, created in a laboratory, born as a sixteen year old girl, an empty vessel with no life experience to draw from. She is a Beta, an experimental model of teenaged clone. She was replicated from another teenage girl, who had to die in order for Elysia to be created.Revived (Cat Patrick) A secret government agency has developed a drug called Revive that can bring people back from the dead, and Daisy Appleby, a test subject, has been Revived five times in fifteen years.Renegade (J.A. Souders) Sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters lives in the underwater utopia known as Elysium, selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes. All her life she’s thought that everything was perfect but discovers Her memories have been altered. Her mind and body aren’t under her own control. And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.Maximum Ride (James Patterson) - a group of teens who can fly. It may seem like a
dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living
nightmare at any time...like when Angel, the youngest member of the
flock, is kidnapped and taken back to the "School" where she and the
others were experimented on by a crew of wack jobs.

XVI * (Julia Karr) – at age 16 girls get a brand meaning they
are now available for sexual activity

Starters (Lissa Price) – teenagers can rent out their bodies
to elderly people who want to be young again

Unwind (Neal
Shusterman) - Parents have the right to unwind their teenage children –
basically “part their organs out”

Wither
(Lauren DeStefano) - Genetic mutations have reduced human longevity to
twenty-five, even less for most women, who are put into polygamous marriages

Delirium (Lauren Oliver) - Scientists are able to eradicate
love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon
turning eighteen.

The House of the Scorpion (Nancy Farmer) - award winning story of Matt, the clone of 142-year-old El Patron, dictator of Opium. Clones have
one purpose, to extend the lives of those whose DNA they possess by
providing them with a source for spare parts.

Rex Rising (Chrystalla
Thoma) - When humans are infected with parasites, they can
gain unique powers but are still at risk
from the infections in their bodies. I
couldn’t tell if this was a fantasy world or another planet, but because the
idea is so SF, I put it in this category.

Matched * (Ally
Condie) – The Society makes marriages matches (rather than individuals or
parents) but Cassia has apparently been
matched to two different boys – which is the right one?

Eve (Anna Carey) – After
a deadly virus has wiped out most of the earth’s population, girls who can
still reproduce are hoarded and separated from men their whole lives except
when it’s time to bear children for leading men

Bumped (Megan McCafferty) - When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents
pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the
most prized members of society

Human.4 (Mike A Lancaster) - Humanity, like computers, can be upgraded. And old versions disappear. Kyle missed the upgrade
of humanity to 1.0. He isn't compatible with our new technology - but he knows what the upgrades really mean.

Skinned (Robin Wasserman) - Her body dies in a car wreck, but Lia's brain is downloaded into a new mechanical body with a synthetic skin. Lia doesn't want to be a skinner, a mech-head, a freak - even her family is afraid of her.GemX (Nicky Singer) - If you’re rich enough, you can tailor your child’s genes to perfection. At
the age of 16, the perfect face of Maxo develops a “crack” in it. Projected to live to
135, he learns that he is suddenly aging rapidly. Luckily, his father is
a premier biologist, who promises a quick solution…just as soon as he
figures out the cause.

The Gardener (S.A. Bodeen) Mason accidently wakes a comatose girl at a nursing home and learns she is part of a horrible experiment to render teenagers into autotrophs - genetically engineered, self-sustaining life forms who don't seed food or water to survive. Why would anyone do this to teens? I'm almost afraid to find out.

The Declaration (Gemma Malley) - It's the year 2140 and Longevity drugs have all but eradicated old age. A
never-aging society can't sustain population growth, however…which means Anna
should never have been born, and now she has to atone for her birth by being a servant.

Shadows Cast by Stars (Catherine Knutsen) - Two hundred years from
now, blood has become the most valuable commodity on the planet -
especially the blood of aboriginal peoples, for it contains antibodies
that protect them from the plague that is ravaging the rest of the
world.

Altered (Jennifer Rush) - a 17-year-old finds
herself on the run from her father's enigmatic Agency along with the
four teen boys the Agency had been experimenting on, in a mystery of
erased memories, secret identities, and genetic alteration

The Rule of Claw (John Brindley) - Humans are on the edge of extinction and 16 yr old Ash is a pawn in the power struggles between the formidable raptors. In
these beautiful beasts, she glimpses new forms of evolution which make
her consider her own humanity. Soon she learns the frightening truth of
their origins.

Sharp North (Patrick Cave) - Mira lives in an
environmentally damaged and socially dangerous Great Britain that is
ruled by the caste of the Great Families, forming a society where
reproduction is strictly limited and where families keep illegal clones
-- or "spares" -- of themselves, just in case a replacement is ever
needed

Replication: the Jason Experiment (Jill Williamson) - Martyr---otherwise known
as Jason 3:3---is one of hundreds of clones kept in a remote facility
called Jason Farms. Told that he has been created to save humanity,
Martyr has just one wish before he is scheduled to 'expire' in less than
a month. To see the sky.

Truesight (David Strahler Jr) - Everyone
in Jacob's
colony is born blind. It has always been this way. They embrace the
philosophy of Truesight: Blindness brings unity, purity, and freedom -
but when Jacob develops sight, he discovers all is not so perfect in the
colony. (upper Middle Grade)

My Sister's Keeper* (Jodi Picoult) - The product of
preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow
match for her older sister Kate, who has leukemia. By age thirteen, Anna has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots to save her sister's life. Will she continue? (main character is a young teen but also includes adult perspectives).

Genesis Alpha (Rune Michaels) - Josh was born for a
reason. It was Josh's stem cells, harvested when Josh was newly born,
that saved his dying older brother's life.

The Sky Inside (Clare B. Dunkle) - Every
year a new generation of genetically-engineered children is shipped out
to meet their parents who live in the protective dome. But then a
stranger comes and takes away all the little children, including
Martin's little sister Cassie, and no one wants to talk about where
she's gone. (upper Middle Grade)

iBoy (Kevin Brooks). A head-on collision with high
technology has turned Tom Harvey into an actualized App. Fragments of a
shattered iPhone are embedded in his brain. And they're having an
extraordinary effect on his every thought.

Memories or minds are messed with

Open Minds * 2011 (Susan Kaye Quinn) -Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves.

What's Left of Me* 2012 (Kat Zhang) - two minds trapped in one body. Normally the recessive mind will fade away, but what if it doesn't?

Adoration of Jenna Fox* 2009 (Mary Pearson) – teenage girl wakes
up from a coma with memories she isn’t sure are her own

Memento Nora # (Angie Smibert)– anyone can take a pill to forget terrible things that have
happened to them

Candor # (Pam Borchoz) - Oscar has a secret. He knows that parents bring their teens to Candor to make them respectful, compliant–perfect–through subliminal Messages that carefully correct and control their behavior.

Slide # 2012 (Jill Hathaway) - Vee can slide into someone else's mind and experience the world through their eyes. (this might be more paranormal than SF, but it reminds me more of an SF premise)

Slated (Teri Terry) Kyla’s memory has been erased, her personality wiped blank, her memories lost for ever. She’s been Slated. The government claims she was a terrorist, and that they are giving her a second chance - as long as she plays by their rules.Those That Wake (Jesse Karp) – Parents’ memories of their
children wiped. Corporation /technology control of everything we want.

As I Wake (Elizabeth Scott) – teenager’s memories start to
return, hinting at a totally different life (a mysterious dystopia) than what
she’s living now

Knife of Never Letting Go (Patrick Ness) – all males can read each other’s
thoughts so when you find out something terrible how do you keep it secret?

House of Stairs (William Sleator) - classic SF mind control story. Five
teen-agers imprisoned are in a seemingly infinite network of staircases that ultimately turns out to be a gigantic Skinner
box designed to condition their behavior.

Computers / artificial intelligence / virtual reality

Feed* 2004 (M.T. Anderson) – boy meets a teenage girl who has
decided to fight the all pervasive Internet feed and its omnipresent ability to
categorize human thoughts and desires. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Snowcrash * (Neal Stephanson) A hacker and a skateboard-riding courier girl team up up to save the world full of commercialism run amok and virtual reality. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Glitch (Heather Anastasiu) Implanted computer chips have wiped humanity clean of destructive emotions, and thoughts are replaced by a feed from the Link network. When Zoe starts to malfunction (or “glitch”), she suddenly begins having her own thoughts, feelings, and identity.

Hex (Rhiannon Lassiter) - London. The 24th
century. The CPS, a secret government agency, is on a mission to seek
and destroy the Hex, human mutants with supercomputer minds. They are
young. They look like you or me. They must never be allowed to grow
up....

Brain Jack # (Brian Falkner) - Neuro-headsets have replaced computer keyboards. Just slip on a headset, and it’s the Internet at the speed of thought. Teen hacker Sam Wilson has a terrifying realization. If anything
on his computer is vulnerable to a hack, what happens when his mind is
linked to the system? Could consciousness itself be hijacked?

The Last Book in the Universe (Rodman Philbrick) In a world where most
people are plugged into brain-drain entertainment systems, Spaz teams up with Ryter, who still remembers the way things were in the past, in order to save his dying sister.

Genesis (Bernard Beckett) - teenager seeks acceptance to prestigious academy and discovers the academy's clandestine pursuits in the area of artificial intelligence

Shade's Children (Garth Nix) - In a brutal city of the
future, the evil Overlords (robots?) have decreed that no child may live a day
past his 14th birthday. The children's only hope is the mysterious Shade, a computer program that holds the consciousness of an adult man left over from before the Change.

Virtual War (Gloria Skurzynski) Imagine a life of
virtual reality -- a childhood contained in a controlled environment,
with no human contact or experiences outside of the world of
computer-generated images. Everything Corgan is,
everything he has ever seen or done, was to prepare him for one moment: a
bloodless, computer-controlled virtual war. Invitation to the Game (Monica Hughes) It's the future, and
most jobs are done by machines. Now that school is over, Lisse and her
friends are consigned to a bleak neighborhood for the permanently
unemployed. Then they receive an invitation to the Game, which
transports them to a paradise. Is it a dream or a computer simulation?

Epic (Conor Kostick) - Violence is banned and conflicts are
resolved in the arena of a fantasy computer game, Epic. Everyone plays.
If you win, you have the chance to go to university, get more supplies
for your community, and fulfill your dreams; if you lose, your life both
in and out of the game is worth nothing. (upper Middle Grade)

Space travel / new worlds

These Broken Stars**, Amie Kaufman, 2013: Titanic in space, surviving on a strange planet, love story

Academy 7* 2007 (Anne Osterland) – two kids from very different
backgrounds end up at the most prestigious academy in the Alliance,
governing hundreds of different planets

Across
the Universe* 2010 (Beth Revis) – a teenage girl trying to find a mysterious
killer on a spaceship traveling to colonize a far distant planet.

The Comet's Curse (Dom Testa) - mankind is confronted
with a virus that devastates the adult population. Only those under the
age of eighteen seem to be immune. Desperate to save humanity, a
renowned scientist proposes a bold plan: to create a ship that will
carry a crew of 251 teenagers to a home in a distant solar system.

Black Hole Sun # (David McGinnis Gill) – a crew made up of
teenagers (??) discover its up to them to protect miners
who are responsible for making Mars’ atmosphere suitable for humans when they are preyed upon by human-eating monsters (note: this book got an endorsement from
Suzanne Collins!)

The Pearl Wars (Nick James) - A devastated Earth's
last hope is found in Pearls: small, mysterious orbs that fall from
space and are capable of supplying enough energy to power entire cities.
Battling to control the Pearls are the Skyship dwellers—political
dissidents who live in massive ships in the Earth's stratosphere—and the
corrupt Surface government.

Glow 2011 (Amy Kathleen Ryan) - What if you were bound
for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been
promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made
survival—not love—the issue?

The Flight of the Outcast (Brad Strickland) Asteria Locke has never
left her father's farm on the remote planet of Theron, but a surprise attack by space raiders destroys everything
she's ever known. Orphaned and alone, Asteria vows to avenge her
father's death by joining the Royal Spacefleet Academy. . . even if she
has to lie to get in.

Zoe's Tale (John Scalzi) - I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A
colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of
aliens. A player (and a pawn) in a interstellar chess match to save
humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter.
Human. Seventeen years old.

The Lost Art (Simon Morden) - A millennium after the
formidable war machines of the User cultures devoured entire
civilizations and rewrote planetary geography, Earth is in a Dark Age. Scientific endeavor is strongly discouraged, while
remnant technology is locked away. A descendant of the tribes who fled the planet during those ages old wars, Benzamir returns to earth bringing wondrous technology - and conflict.

D.A. (Connie Willis) Theodora Baumgarten has
just been selected as an IASA space cadet, and therein lies the
problem. She didn't apply for the ultra-coveted posting, and doesn't
relish spending years aboard the ship to which she's been assigned.

Stray # (Andrea K Host) - Told
in diary form (with great voice!), Cassandra Devlin chronicles her displacement from her own beloved Earth
to a new planet after walking through a wormhole.

Singing the Dogstar Blues (Alison Goodman) - Seventeen-year-old Joss
is a rebel, and a student of time travel at the prestigious Centre for
Neo-Historical Studies. She is paired up with an
alien student, Mavkel, which is a most interesting and unusual relationship.

Survey Ship (Marion Zimmer Bradley): Talented young children are trained become future space explorers. The best of the best are chosen to crew a survey ship that goes out among
the stars to find habitable planets. The Cyborg from Earth (Charles DeLint) - when Jeff blows off his
naval entrance exams he figures his future is basically kaput. Instead,
he is being sent by the navy into deep space to deal with rebellious
cyborgs, and discovers he's a pawn in a dangerous game.

Ender's Game * (Orson Scott Card) - A SF classic: in order to develop a
secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government
agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. The most amazing twist at the end! (upper middle grade). HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

EarthSeed (Pamela Sargent) -another SF oldie (1983). A space ship launched by the people of a dying Earth over a century ago is on a mission to find a habitable world for 15 yr old Zoheret and other teens who have been created from the ship's genetic banks.

A Wrinkle in Time
* (Madeleine L'Engle) - a true SF classic (1962) involving both space and time
travel as Meg and her little brother try to find their missing father.
(upper middle grade: this is the book I read as a kid that made me fall
in love with SF!) HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

Dune * (Frank
Herbert) - the protag is a teenager, but this SF epic was written
before "YA" even existed (1965). Paul's family travels to a new planet to take
over management but are overthrown. Paul
survives and finds allies among the native desert-dwellers who ride
giant sand worms. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein) - another classic written before "YA" existed (1959). A high school graduate goes through the toughest bootcamp in the universe to save earth from a terrifying alien menace.

The Last Universe (William Sleator) - I wasn't sure where to put this one; it's not space travel or time travel but it does deal with quantum physics - a quantum garden, in fact. Planted by a scientist who
disappeared long ago, the maze offers seemingly endless routes and
choices. The teenagers (Susan and her wheelchair-bound, dying brother) discover that each turn they take alters their
world in some way.

Slipstream (Michael Ouffut) When earthlings detonated
the first atomic bomb in 1945, something incredible happened. The
detonation triggered an extinction level event on a parallel world. A
computer program saved humanity and became the ruler of this place.
However, its brilliant mind fragmented and became insane - and highschool hockey player Jordan is now stranded in this nightmare universe.

Losers in Space (John Barnes) Teen stow away on a ship bound for Mars hoping become media sensations, but encounter more than they bargained for.

127 Hours on the Moon (Johan Harstad, Tara Chace) To grab some
much-needed funding and attention, NASA launches an historic
international lottery in which three lucky teenagers can win a week-long
trip to the moon base. But humans never should have returned to the moon at all...

Aliens

I Am Number Four * (Pittacus Lore/James Frey): nine aliens
find refuge on Earth from their enemies, blending in among humans until their
powers are developed enough to fight back.

Starcrossed: Perigee # (Tracey Lee Campbell) - a teenage girl
is stalked by aliens intent on abduction, who use a “whisperer” - an engineered
human/alien hybrid to charm and seduce their prey – except one of them breaks
the rules to help instead of harm its human prey

Exiled # (RaShelle Workman) - An alien princess exiled to Earth.
An arrogant boy.
One week to get back to her planet or she'll die.
And, her only chance for survival? She must help the boy find his soul mate.

Singing the Dogstar Blues # (Alison Goodman) - Seventeen-year-old Joss
is a rebel, and a student of time travel at the prestigious Centre for
Neo-Historical Studies. She is paired up with an
alien student, Mavkel, which is a most interesting and unusual relationship.

Gravity # (Melissa West) - Ari is a military legacy who’s been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know--especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war.

Aliens on Vacation # (Clete Barrett Smith) When Scrub arrives at his Grandma's Intergalactic Bed & Breakfast, he finds out that each room in the inn is a portal, and his grandma is the gate-keeper, allowing aliens to vacation on Earth.

Stuck on Earth (David Klass) - Ketchvar III’s mission
is simple: travel to Planet Earth, inhabit the body of an average
teenager, and determine if the human race should be annihilated.Navohar (Hilari Bell) - To save the world from
an alien invasion, humanity altered their children's genetic code--but
now they're paying the price. Earth's younger generations are dying of a
new disease. Salvation may lie in outer space, in the DNA of humans who
founded colonies before the alien attack. That is, if Earth's settlers
can be found.

The Host * (Stephenie Meyers) – not YA, but written by a famous YA author, so I
figured lots of teens would be attracted to it. Aliens take over human bodies
but some of the humans resist and convince a few of the aliens to help them. RECOMMEND.

How to Date an Alien (Magan Vernon) - High school senior Alex
Bianchi's estranged father gets her an internship at Circe Operations
Center to pad her college applications. But Circe isn't your typical
military base. It's an alien-run operation center and not all of the
aliens are friendly.

Time Travel / Time Twist

This category is reserved for more SF style time travel or twists, rather than books with a stronger focus on romantic or historical entanglements in different time periods, like Timeless by Alexandra Monir (though I admit I love those too, I don't think they qualify as SF).

Pathfinder # (Orson Scott Card) – a time-travel ship and two teenagers from
different times who cross paths.

Tempest # (Julie Cross) - during an attack that kills his girlfriend, Jackson panics and jumps back in time - then finds he can't return to the near present to save Holly from being killed. But his attackers can also time travel, and they're jumping back in time to find him and recruit him, or kill him.

Singing the Dogstar Blues (Alison Goodman) - Seventeen-year-old Joss
is a rebel, and a student of time travel at the prestigious Centre for
Neo-Historical Studies. She is paired up with an
alien student, Mavkel, which is a most interesting and unusual relationship.

TimeRiders (Alex Scarrow) - teenagers recruited to work at a pocket of time in NYC where they identify the workings of other time travelers to keep them from altering history with the help of an android named Bob (upper middle grade)

The Transall Saga (Gary Paulsen) - Mark's solo camping trip
in the desert turns into a terrifying and thrilling odyssey when a
mysterious beam of light transports him to another time on what appears
to be another planet.

Justin Thyme (Panama Oxridge) When Justin tells his
father of his plans to build a time machine to rescue his mum, the Laird of Thyme reveals
tantalizing fragments of past espionage and warns his son of a ruthless
enemy keeping him under constant surveillance (upper middle grade)

Time Between Us (Tamara Ireland Stone) - Releases in 10/2012 so I don't know yet if it's SF. An ambitious
sixteen-year-old feels trapped in her Midwestern town until she meets a
seventeen-year-old time traveler who can hold her hands and take her
anywhere she wants to go at the speed of thought.

The Test (J.Z. Colby) Not sure which group to put this one in! It's billed as SF visits medieval times, so I put in time travel, but I'm not sure. A strange young man
arrives in a medieval kingdom. Openly seeking a crew for a mysterious
ship no one has seen, it is soon clear he is looking for something other
than salty old sailors.

Apocalyptic / Post-Apocalyptic

For Darkness Shows the Stars * 2011 (Diana Peterfreund) - a science fiction retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion based in a post-apocalyptic world devastated by genetic manipulation gone wrong.

Ship Breaker* 2010 (Paolo Bacigalupi) – the seas have risen and many cities are underwater; there are half-men and pirates. Throw two preteens together, one a privileged mob leader’s daughter and the other a drug addict’s son.

Dark Life # (Kat Falls) - Set in an apocalyptic future where rising oceans have swallowed up entire regions and people live packed like sardines on the dry land left, underwater pioneers have carved out a life for themselves in the harsh deep-sea environment

The Diary of Pelly D # (L.J. Adlington) - a boy on a demolition crew finds Pelly's diary buried in a ruined city. Drawn into her story of gene tagging, the bombs, and the fighting, the boy needs to know to what happens to her. He has only one clue: dig—dig everywhere.

Breathe (Sarah Crossman) The world is dead.The survivors live under the protection of Breathe, the corporation that found a way to manufacture oxygen-rich air. As three teenagers walk into the Outlands with two days’ worth of oxygen in their tanks, everything they believe will be shattered

Ashfall (Mike Mullin) - a teenager trying to reach his family after the Yellowstone super-volcano erupts

The Carbon Diaries 2015 (Saci Lloyd) - this isn't actually apocalyptic, it's called an "ecothriller." It's set in the near future when carbon rationing begins (in other words, when we are forced to "go green" to save the environment) and Laura and her family aren't too happy about having to give up their cars and other things - but then the carbon rationing plan goes tragically awry.

The Eleventh Plague (Jeff Hirsch) - a teenage scavenger surviving in post-apocalyptic America discovers a lost slice of old America, where the settlers are determined to remake the world they grew up in, no matter the cost.

Gone (Michael Grant) - All adults
have disappeared, teenagers have to figure out how to survive

Neva (also goes by the title Dark Parties) (Sarah Grant) – everyone
must live under a protective sphere because the outside world has been
poisoned. Or has it?

Under the Never Sky (Veronica Rossi) - another protected dome story where a teenage girl discovers she has to leave her protected realm in order to find the answer to her mother gone missing

Pure (Julianna Baggott) - another protected dome story! This time it's the boy inside the dome and the girl in the wasteland outside where everyone is required to become a soldier or if they are too damaged, to become a live target for practice.

The Way We Fall (Megan Crewe) – an
entire community is quarantined because of a deadly virus – how teenagers cope
with family/friends dying off

The Other Life (Susan Winnaker)
- when
her family runs out of food, a teenage girl and her father must emerge
from their shelter into a damaged world of limited resources and mutant killers

The Dark Inside (Jen Roberts) –
sounds like a teenage version of the Road – four teenagers must survive after
earthquakes (and something else) kills their families and changes everything
familiar in their world

Water Wars (Cameron Stracher) –
teenagers deal with aftermath of environmental catastrophe where everything
depends on a limited supply of water

Drought (Pam Borchez) - Ruby plots to escape the nineteenth century lifestyle of her cult-like community and the daily struggle to father the life-prolonging Water that keeps the community alive and provides healing and prolonged life.

Siberia (Ann Halam) - In a cold future where wild animals have vanished, Sloe escapes from a prison school and tries to fulfill her mother's work to restore long lost species.

Life As We Knew It (Susan Beth Pfeffer) - when a meteor hits the moon, earth is devastated by tsunamis and earthquakes and a world turned into winter. The most important resource is hope.

Ashes, Ashes
(Jo Treggiari) – 99% of the population is wiped out by environmental collapse.
Two teenagers find each other and try to survive.

Ashes (Ilsa J. Bick) - not another title with Ashes in it!! - the world after a devastating electromagnetic pulse that destroys technology and kills billions

Eden (Keary Taylor) –
a technology that fuses human DNA with cybernetic matter has gotten out of
control, taking over the earth. Very few true humans are left, hiding in a
place called Eden

Blood Red Road (Moira Young) - Saba embarks on a quest to find her brother after a monster sandstorm, joining a band of revolutionaries against a corrupt society

Enclave (Ann Aguirre) - In Deuce’s world, people earn the right to a name only if they survive their
first fifteen years. By that point, each unnamed ‘brat’ has trained into one of
three groups–Breeders, Builders, or Hunters, identifiable by the number of scars
they bear on their arms

Inside Out (Maria V Snyder) - I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels,
keeping Inside clean for the Uppers

Exodus (Julie Bertagna) Less than a hundred
years from now, the world as we know it no longer exists. Cities have
disappeared beneath the sea, technology no longer functions, and human
civilization has reverted to a much more primitive state

Restoring Harmony (Joelle Anthony) - The year is 2041, and
sixteen-year-old Molly McClure has lived a relatively quiet life on an
isolated farming island in Canada, but in order to find her grandparents she must brave the
dangerous, chaotic world left after global economic collapseone of
massive oil shortages, rampant crime, and abandoned cities.

Empty (SuzanneWeyn) It's the near future -
the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No
oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have
shut down. Teens involved in the process of survival and a rethinking of society

The Blending Time (Michael Kinch) - Trying to survive in a
world that's been ravaged by plagues and environmental disasters, three
"s'teeners" from the harshest backgrounds are chosen to be blenders,
whose task is to help repopulate and rebuild Africa after a devastating
solar flare.

The Big Empty (J.B. Stephens) - After a plague, the surviving population
of the United States has been relocated to the coasts; the heartland is
now a wasteland called The Big Empty. But seven teens trying to put
their lives back together will learn that the abandoned zone holds
danger, secrets, and above all, hope

Z for Zachariah (Robert C O'Brien) - Ann Burden is sixteen years old and completely alone. The world as she once knew it is gone, ravaged by a nuclear war. When she finally discovers another person, she soon realizes there may be worse things than being the last person on Earth

Epitaph Road (David Patneaude) - A plague wipes out 97 percent of the male population - Kellen is one of the few remaining males, always afraid of another outbreak of the plague - except maybe the plague is a device used by the ruling women to keep men under control? (upper middle grade)

The Secret Under My Skin (Janet Mcnaughton): In the year 2368,
humanity struggles to recuperate from a technocaust that has left a
generation of orphans in its wake. Strict government regulations
convince people that technology is dangerous; confusion and fear rule
the earth (upper middle grade)

Floodland (Marcus Sedgwick)
- 10 yr old Zoe lives in a world where the sea is quickly encroaching on the land.
Accidentally left behind by her parents, Zoe takes off in the rowboat to find her parents
and safety. Instead she finds a Lord of the Flies like community ruled by the frightening
Dooby (upper middle grade)

The City of Ember (Jeanne DuPrau) - The city of Ember was built as a
last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, Lina and Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever (upper middle grade)

Neptune's Children (Bonnie Dobkin) - A day at the fabled
amusement park Isles of Wonder turns deadly when a world-wide biological
attack kills every adult, leaving behind only the kids. Isolated from the rest of the world, the kids choose to create their own society (upper middle grade)

A Crack in the Sky (Mark Peter Hughes) - Thirteen year old Eli sees a crack in the protective dome over his city and worries - even though InfiniCorp promises they're taking care of everything. When he starts to question his grandfather's all powerful company, he and his pet mongoose end up an exile with Tabitha, a slave girl (upper middle grade)

Obernewtyn(Isobelle Carmody) In an explosive
flash - the Great White - everything was destroyed. The few who survived banded together and
formed a Council for protection. But people like Elspeth-mysteriously
born with powerful mental abilities-are feared by the Council and hunted
down like animals...to be destroyed.

The Chrysalids (John Wyndam) - set in the future after a
devastating global nuclear war. David, the young hero of the novel,
lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic
fundamentalists, who exist in a state of constant alert for any
deviation from what they perceive as the norm of God's creation,
deviations broadly classified as 'offenses' and 'blasphemies.'

Eden (Keary Taylor) - technology has infused human DNA with cybernetic matter, able to grow new organs and
limbs, but it's gotten out of control. The machine took over and the soul
vanished. The world quickly losing its humanity.

20 Years Later (E.J. Newman) - the nature of the apocalypse that has destroyed London is only referred to as "It." 20 years later, a new society is rebuilding itself out of the destruction; the children don't really know what happened 20 years ago... neither will the reader until the end.

Famished(Lauren Hammond) An asteroid has
destroyed what the human race knew as earth and The Great Famine has
wiped out most of the surviving human population, but Georgiana is safe in an underground colony - until she's sent to a surface with another teenager, the unfortunate winners of a lottery.

Revealing Eden(Victoria Foyt) - Eden Newman must mate
before her 18th birthday in six months or she'll be left outside to die
in a burning world. In a
post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty
are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden's coloring
brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl - who would ever pick her for a mate?

Paranormal, fantasy or steampunk crossovers

Leviathan * Scott Westerfeld) - an alternative history of WWI with fantastic steampunk machines of war - and also biologically-engineered animals of war.

The Golden Compass * (Philip Pullman) - a parallel world with talking animals, but just enough interesting "scientific" devices to maybe qualify as science fiction steampunk. (upper middle grade)Airborn # (Kenneth Opel) Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city and discovers... well you have to find out. (upper middle grade).

Things Not Seen # (Andrew Clements) Bobby Phillips is an average fifteen-year-old boy until he turns invisible. Not even his dad the physicist can figure out how it happened. For Bobby that means no school, no friends, no life. He's a missing person. Then he meets Alicia. She's blind, and Bobby can't resist talking to her, trusting her (upper middle grade)

Above World # (Jenn Reese) - Set in a world where overcrowding has led humans to adapt - growing tails to live under the ocean or wings to live on mountains - here is a ride through a future where greed and cruelty have gone unchecked, but the loyalty of friends remains true (upper middle grade)

The Alchemy of Forever # (Avery Williams) - Seraphina Ames can live forever by taking over the bodies of other humans, ending the human's life in the process. This appears to be fantasy, but I could also see it as a great SF premise (similar to the Host).

Dearly Departed # (Lia Habel) - a futuristic society modeled after the Victorian era - and a deadly virus that produces the living dead.

Hourglass # (Myra McEntire) - Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, Emerson just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. Billed as a mix of paranormal and science fiction.

Incarceron # (Catherine Fischer) - Finn is a young prisoner in a futuristic prison who has haunting visions of an earlier life, and cannot believe he was born here and has always been here. In the outer world, Claudia, daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, is trapped in a world constructed beautifully to look like a past era, an imminent marriage she dreads.

SkyLark # (Megan Spooner) - The world ends at the edge of the vast domed barrier of energy enclosing all that’s left of humanity. For two hundred years the city has sustained this barrier by harvesting its children's innate magical energy when they reach adolescence. Except Lark is a Renewable, able to regenerate her own power after it’s been stripped. Sounds like there may be some steampunk elements.

Fireseed One (Catherine Stine) - It's 2089 and people ride
tricked-out amphibious vehicles over toxic waters and eat fish that grow up on vines in floating warehouses. When seed disks from the
world's food bank are stolen, Varik and Marisa team up to search for a magical hybrid plant.

Worldshaker (Richard Harland) - Col lives on the Upper Decks of the juggernaut Worldshaker,
a mobile city as big as a mountain. He has been chosen as next Supreme
Commander - but then a girl, Filthy, escapes from Below and appears in
his cabin. "Don't let 'em take me!" she begs.

The Girl in the Steel Corset (Kady Cross) - Finley is no normal Victorian girl. She has a magical darkness inside of her; Sam is part robot; Jasper is a cowboy; the enemy is the Machinist.

The Explosionist (Jenny Davidson) - a 15 yr old girl growing up in alternative history prior to WWII in a world preoccupied with technology and spiritualism.

The Dead Gentleman (Matthew Cody) - Tommy attracts the attention of the Explorers Guild, a secret society
dedicated to the explorations of portals between a myriad of worlds, and
begins a life of monster hunting, steampunk-esque submarine excursions,
mystery and time travel (upper middle grade)

Numbers (Rachel Ward) - a girl with the power to tell the date of when a person dies realizes that terrorists are about to attack London

Shadow Hills (Anastasia Hopcus) - the reviews say it's a mix of science, magic and mythology - Phe leaves her home in LA to attend a mysterious prep school which her sister mysteriously mentioned in her last diary entry before she died.

Crewel (Gennifer Albin) - a world where women known as “spinsters” are able to “weave” time,
matter, and the very fabric of existence. Being selected as a spinster
means power, privilege, and beauty, but it also means entering a world
of secrets and lethal intrigue. Adelice doesn't want to be a spinster but they're coming for her...

Boneshaker (Cherie Priest) -an alternative steampunk history where a boys tries to discover what is living behind a wall surrounding Seattle, supposedly destroyed by a great drill engine

Fever Crumb (Philip Reeve) - In a time and place
where women are not seen as reasonable creatures, Fever is an anomaly,
the only female to serve in the order of Engineers (upper middle grade?)

Raider's Ransom (Emily Diamand)- set in 22nd century when much of the world is underwater, this book seems to also have fantasy elements - sea cats, a talking jewel, and pirates (upper middle grade)

The Supernaturalist (Eoin Colfer) -In the future, in a place
called Satelite City, fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill enters the world,
unwanted by his parents. He's sent to an Institute for
Parentally Challenged Boys, Freight class, where boys are put to work by the state, testing highly dangerous products. Then he discovers he has the supernatural ability to detect Parasites, creatures that feed on the life force of humans.

Solstice (P.J. Hoover) - Global warming is killing every living thing on Earth, and each day brings hotter temperatures and
heat bubbles which threaten to destroy humanity. But when Piper discovers a world of mythology she never knew existed, she realizes her world is not the only one in crisis.

1 comment:

Two science fiction novels of mine often peddled to unsuspecting kids as YA: Orbital Resonance (1991; referred to by my longtime agent as "Little House in Orbit") and The Sky So Big and Black (2002, "Little House on Mars"). They weren't deliberately written as YA but they were sure read as it.

I had another series mismarketed as YA but would just as soon not have it end up on yet another YA list, since that was really not the intention!

And I'm very glad to see someone else who thinks that the geeks of today deserve some sf upon which to geek!

Rabid reader of young adult and middle grade books, all genres. Love to analyze books from a writing perspective. Somewhat deluded that writing at high altitude (Laramie, Wyoming, 7200 ft) gives me an edge. Also suffer from the delusion that mythical creatures are real. Because a pendragon isn't just a medieval surname but a tiny dragon that sparks flames when you write with it.